A. Igoni Barrett was born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, in 1979 and lives in Lagos. He is a winner of the 2005 BBC World Service short story competition, the recipient of a Chinua Achebe Center Fellowship, a Norman Mailer Center Fellowship, and a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Residency. His short story collection, Love is Power, or Something Like That, was published in 2013. In 2014 he was named on the Africa39 list of sub-Saharan African writers under 40. Blackass is his first novel.

A. Igoni Barrett

The short life of A.J.A. Symons (1900-41) was described by his biographer as an intricate and largely harmless confidence trick. His many interests included the collection of musical boxes and rare books as well as the study and practice of forgery; they left him time to edit an anthology of Edwardian verse and compose studies of H.M. Stanley and other notable figures. He is remembered for The Quest for Corvo, one of the most remarkable biographies ever written, and for co-founding the Wine and Food Society.

A. J. A. Symons

A. J. Liebling, born in Manhattan in 1904, joined the staff of the New Yorker in 1935 and contributed innumerable articles to the magazine throughout his lifetime, on subjects ranging from food to boxing and France to horse racing. As a war correspondent during the Second World War, he reported from France, England and Algeria, and participated in the Normandy landings. In later life he married the writer Jean Stafford, his third wife. He died in 1963.

A. J. Liebling

A. J. Rosen is an author of YA fantasy novels and is an ambassador for Wattpad, known as @agatharoza. Entwined is her first novel.

A. J. Rosen

A. K. Davidson

A. O. Scott has been a film critic at the New York Times since 2000. His writing has appeared in many other publications, including the New York Review of Books, Slate, the New Yorker and the Nation. A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism in 2010, Scott is currently Distinguished Professor of Film Criticism at Wesleyan University. He lives with his family in Brooklyn, New York. 
 
@aoscott

A. O. Scott

A.S. Byatt (1936-2023) was a novelist, short-story writer and critic of international renown. Her novels include Possession (winner of the Booker Prize 1990), the Frederica Quartet and The Children’s Book, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction. She was appointed CBE in 1990 and DBE in 1999, and was awarded the Erasmus Prize 2016 for her ‘inspiring contribution to life writing’ and the Pak Kyongni Prize 2017. In 2018 she received the Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award.

A. S. Byatt

A. T. Williams won the George Orwell Prize for Political Writing in 2013 for his book A Very British Killing: The Death of Baha Mousa. He lives in Warwickshire.

A. T. Williams

A. W. Chase

Dubbed ‘The new queen of spy fiction’ by the Guardian newspaper, and ‘the real thing’ by the Washington Post, A.C. 'Ava' Glass is the CWA Dagger-shortlisted author of Alias Emma (The Chase), The Traitor and The Trap. The Traitor was a 2023 Richard and Judy Bookclub pick. Alias Emma was a Barnes and Noble book of the month. A former crime reporter and communications consultant, for five years Ava worked closely with spies. Her time in that world fascinated her, and the people she met back then inspire every book she writes.

A.C. Glass

A.E. Housman

Arthur Edward Waite was the designer and co-creator of the now famous Rider Waite Tarot deck. 
 
An American-born British poet and scholarly mystic, his strong interest in all esoteric matters - divination, magic, Kabbalism, alchemy and Freemasony - led to him penning a number of books. These include the Key to the Tarot, The Book of Ceremonial Magic and A New Encyclopedia of Freemasony.

A.E. Waite

A.E. Warren is the author of the Tomorrow's Ancestors series, which consists of Subject Twenty-One, The Hidden Base, The Fourth Species and The Final Rising. 
 
After spending eight years working as a lawyer, she began to write in the evenings and early mornings as a form of escapism from life in a very small cubicle with lots of files. She self-published her first novels in her spare time, which were picked up by Del Rey UK which is the science fiction/fantasy imprint of Penguin Random House. 
 
 She is an avid reader, occasional gamer and fair-weather runner. She lives in the UK with her husband, daughter and hopefully, one day, a wise border terrier named Austen.

A.E. Warren

A.G.D. Maran

A.J. Ayer

A.J. Cronin

A K Benedict writes crime and speculative fiction in a room filled with clowns, mannequins and Doctor Who figures. Her first novel, The Beauty of Murder, was nominated for an eDunnit award and is in development for a major 8-part TV series by Company Pictures. Her second, Jonathan Dark or The Evidence of Ghosts, came out in February 2016. She's written Torchwood audio dramas for Big Finish and her short stories have featured in anthologies including Great British Horror and Best British Short Stories. She lives in St Leonards-on-Sea with her dog, Dame Margaret Rutherford.

A.K.Benedict

A. L. Kennedy has twice been selected as one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists and has won a host of other awards – including the Costa Book of the Year for her novel Day. She lives in Essex.

A.L. Kennedy

A.M. Ellis is a speculative fiction author and lover of everything steeped in myth and mystery. Her stories often lean into diverse voices, not only in her identity as a Black woman, but in exploring neurodivergence and mental health. A proud introvert and nostalgic gamer, she lives in Maryland, USA, with her husband and three children.

A.M. Ellis

A.N. Wilson was born in 1950 and educated at Rugby and New College, Oxford. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he holds a prominent position in the world of literature and journalism. He is an award-winning biographer and a celebrated novelist, winning prizes for much of his work. He lives in North London.

A.N. Wilson

A. T. Emerald lives with her husband and baby daughter in Nottinghamshire. She discovered her love of writing in 2020 and has not shut up about enemies to lovers ever since. She loves iced matcha, torrid love confessions with knives pressed to throats (fictional, of course) and does not accept bills for any therapy her books might incur.

A.T. Emerald

A.W. Priest

A.B.C. Merriman-Labor was a barrister, writer and munitions worker born in Freetown, Sierra Leone in 1877. His published works include A Series of Lectures on the Negro Race and The Story of the African Slave in a Nutshell. He also edited two editions of the Handbook of Sierra Leone. He arrived in the UK in 1904 to study law. In 1907, he organised a centenary commemoration of the abolition of the slave trade in Westminster Abbey. He later embarked on an 'entertainment-lecture' tour called Life and Scenes in Britain, travelling across thousands of miles of West, South West and Central Africa, which he expanded on to create Britons Through Negro Spectacles.

ABC Merriman-Labor

AJ Cronin

AJ Molloy

Aabria Iyengar is an American actress and author.

Aabria Iyengar

Aaliya Jaleel is a freelance illustrator, designer, and visual development artist, currently majoring in Animation at the University of Texas at Dallas. She is also the illustrator of Under My Hijab and Muslim Girls Rise. You can visit her online at www.aaliyamj.com.

Aaliya Jaleel

Aaron Allston

After more than fifteen years of experience as a clinical psychotherapist, Dr Aaron Balick has taken the amazing insights from psychology and psychotherapy out of the consultation room and made them accessible to the wider world. 
 
He has been an ‘agony uncle’ for many years for both CBBC and BBC Radio 1, as well as on television, including BBC Worldwide, BBC 3 and BBC Learning.

Aaron Balick

Aaron Carroll

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Sathnam Sanghera

In Britain, imperialism is everywhere - though we often choose not to see it. From the way we travel and the foundation of the NHS to the nature of our racism and wealth, it is central to the way we think and conduct politics. In his bestselling book, Sathnam Sanghera demonstrates how so much of modern Britain - including the exceptionalism that inspired Brexit and our response to the COVID-19 crisis - is rooted in our imperial past. 
 
Empire is foundational to modern Britain yet is barely taught in schools or mentioned in museums. At a time of great division, when we are arguing about what it means to be British, Empireland is a groundbreaking revelation - a much-needed and illuminating portrait of modern British society with the power and potential to change minds.

Empireland

How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain

Art Spiegelman

For Art Spiegelman, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Maus, the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 were both highly personal and intensely political. In the Shadow of No Towers, his first new book of comics since the groundbreaking Maus, is a masterful and moving account of the events and aftermath of that tragic day. 
 
Spiegelman and his family bore witness to the attacks in their lower Manhattan neighborhood: his teenage daughter had started school directly below the towers days earlier, and they had lived in the area for years. But the horrors they survived that morning were only the beginning for Spiegelman, as his anguish was quickly displaced by fury at the U.S. government, which shamelessly co-opted the events for its own preconceived agenda. 
 
He responded in the way he knows best. In an oversized, two-page-spread format that echoes the scale of the earliest newspaper comics (which Spiegelman says brought him solace after the attacks), he relates his experience of the national tragedy in drawings and text that convey-with his singular artistry and his characteristic provocation, outrage, and wit-the unfathomable enormity of the event itself, the obvious and insidious effects it had on his life, and the extraordinary, often hidden changes that have been enacted in the name of post-9/11 national security and that have begun to undermine the very foundation of American democracy.

In the Shadow of No Towers

Chanel Miller

Chanel Miller's story changed our world forever. In 2016 Brock Turner was sentenced to just six months in jail after he was caught sexually assaulting her on Stanford's campus. His light sentencing, and Chanel's victim impact statement, which was read by eleven million people in four days, sparked international outrage and action. 
 
Know My Name is an intimate, profoundly moving memoir that exposes a patriarchal culture biased to protect perpetrators, a criminal justice system designed to fail the most vulnerable, and ultimately shines with the courage required to move through suffering and live a full and beautiful life. Entwining pain, resilience, and humour, this breath-taking memoir will stand as a modern classic.

Know My Name

The Survivor of the Stanford Sexual Assault Case Tells Her Story

Gabriel García Márquez

"I don't want to be remembered for One Hundred Years of Solitude or for the Nobel Prize but rather for my journalism," Gabriel García Márquez said in the final years of his life. And while some of his journalistic writings have been made available over the years, this is the first volume to gather a representative selection from across the first four decades of his career - years during which he worked as a full-time, often muckraking, and controversial journalist, even as he penned the fiction that would bring him the Nobel Prize in 1982. 
 
The Scandal of the Century brings together the first pieces he wrote while working for newspapers in the coastal Colombian cities of Cartagena and Barranquilla . . . his longer, more fiction-like reportage from Paris and Rome . . . his monthly columns for Spain's El País. And while all the work points to his fiction in its style, wit, depth, and passion, these fifty pieces are, more than anything, a revelation of the writer working at the profession he believed to be 'the best in the world'.

The Scandal of the Century

and Other Writings

The paperback boxed set of the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel in its original two-volume format re-released to include a sixteen-page booklet designed by the artist. Acclaimed as "the most affecting and successful narrative ever done about the Holocaust" (Wall Street Journal), Maus is considered "the first masterpiece in comic book history" (The New Yorker). 
 
 A brutally moving work of art-widely hailed as the greatest graphic novel ever written-Maus recounts the chilling experiences of the author's father during the Holocaust, with Jews drawn as wide-eyed mice and Nazis as menacing cats. 
 
 Maus is a haunting tale within a tale, weaving the author's account of his tortured relationship with his aging father into an astonishing retelling of one of history's most unspeakable tragedies. It is an unforgettable story of survival and a disarming look at the legacy of trauma

Maus I & II Paperback Box Set

Stefania Rousselle

Award-winning journalist and documentary maker Stefania Rousselle had stopped believing in love. She had covered a series of bleak assignments, from terrorist attacks to the rise of the far right. Her relationship had fallen apart. Her faith in humanity was shaken. She decided to set out alone on a road trip across France, sleeping in strangers' homes, asking ordinary men and women the one question everyone wants to know the answer to: What is love? 
 
From a baker in Normandy to a shepherd in the Pyrénées, from a gay couple estranged from their families to a widow who found love again at 70, Amour is a treasure trove of poignant and profound stories about love, accompanied by beautiful full-colour photographs.

Amour

How the French Talk about Love

Michelle Obama

What's your journey of becoming? Based on Michelle Obama's bestselling memoir, this gorgeous journal features an intimate and inspiring introduction by the former First Lady and more than 150 inspiring questions and quotes to help you discover-and rediscover-your story. 
 
"It's not about being perfect. It's not about where you get yourself in the end. There's power in allowing yourself to be known and heard, in owning your unique story, in using your authentic voice. And there's grace in being willing to know and hear others. This, for me, is how we become." - Michelle Obama 
 
In writing Becoming, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama shared her own extraordinary journey to help create space for others to tell their stories and to give people the courage to discover the power of their own voice. With this journal, she now provides you with the encouragement to find value in your own personal journey of becoming. Printed on cream writing paper, with a grosgrain ribbon, foil-stamped cover, and removable half-jacket, Becoming: A Guided Journal for Discovering Your Voice includes thought-provoking prompts designed to help you reflect on your personal and family history; your goals, challenges, and dreams; what moves you and brings you hope; and what future you imagine for yourself and your community. Writes Mrs. Obama in the Introduction to the Becoming journal, "I hope you'll use this journal to write down your experiences, thoughts, and feelings, in all their imperfections, and without judgment. . . . We don't have to remember everything. But everything we remember has value." 
 
These pages will help you capture your own voice and journey so you can nurture your sense of belonging. Inside, you'll find an opportunity not only to take heart in the experiences that brought you to where you are today, but also to feel empowered to take those next steps, wherever they might lead.

Becoming

A Guided Journal for Discovering Your Voice

Erling Kagge

** The North Pole: The History of an Obsession by Erling Kagge is out now ** 
 
'Erling Kagge transforms and consoles us' Alain de Botton 
____________________________ 
 
Surviving extreme conditions can teach us to lead a fulfilled life. No one knows this better than Erling Kagge, who was the first man in history to reach all of the Earth's poles by foot - the North, the South, and the summit of Everest. In Philosophy for Polar Explorers he brings together the wisdom and expertise he has gained from the expeditions that have taken him to the limits of the earth, and of human endurance. 
 
In sixteen meditative but practical lessons - from cultivating an optimistic outlook, to getting up at the right time, to learning to take pleasure in the small things and comfort in solitude - Erling Kagge reveals what survival in the most extreme conditions can teach us about how to lead a meaningful life. Wherever we may be headed. 
____________________________ 
 
'His wisdom will soothe and awaken' Fearne Cotton 
 
'A delightful book that explores the strange land between getting out of bed in the morning and reaching for the moon Tristan Gooley 
 
'A wonderfully deft Swiss army knife of a book' Dan Richards 
 
'As an explorer Erling Kagge is world class; as a writer he is equally gifted' Sir Ranulph Fiennes 
 
'Erling Kagge is a philosophical adventurer - or perhaps an adventurous philosopher' The New York Times 
 
'An author for our noisy times, full of a rare and deeply redemptive languor and perspective' Alain de Botton

Philosophy for Polar Explorers

An Adventurer’s Guide to Surviving Winter

Iggy Pop

'Iggy... You can't help loving him.' David Bowie 
 
THESE ARE THE WORDS THAT CAME TO ME. NO MATTER HOW THEY GOT HERE, THEY DID THE FUCKING JOB. 
 
Iggy Pop hasn't left a mark on music; he's left it battered, bruised and covered in blood. 
 
Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010, here for the first time are his collected lyrics, complete with stunning original photographs, illustrations and Iggy and others' reflections on a genre-defining music career that spans five decades. 
 
The ultimate book for every rock and roll fan, to coincide with a new IGGY POP album, FREE, due on 6th September.

'Til Wrong Feels Right

Lyrics and More

Christopher Lee

Lord Carrington was Margaret Thatcher's Foreign Secretary when the Argentinians invaded the Falklands in 1982. Absent in Israel on the eve of the invasion, he promptly resigned since it was, he said, a point of honour. He is seen by many today as the last of his breed in politics, an honourable man committed to public service. 
 
The descendant of a famous banking family, Carrington served as a minister in every Conservative government from Churchill to Thatcher. In this full biography, authorised but not read by the subject, author of This Sceptred Isle Christopher Lee offers a fascinating portrait of a Tory icon whose career is a window into post-war British politics and life as a politician and diplomat. 
 
He could be viewed as a typical Tory grandee, yet he disliked the Party, claiming late in his life that he was no longer a member, and could be fiercely independent. And there were recurring oddities in his career. He was forced to offer his resignation to Churchill for bad judgement over the Crichel Down Affair. As Navy Minister he was caught in the glare of a spy ring, and, though Defence Secretary, kept out of the loop of the military operation which culminated in Bloody Sunday. 
 
Margaret Thatcher said there was something innately reassuring walking into a room where Carrington stood. Was this a barbed compliment? Did he in fact lack the steel required of a modern politician? He certainly represents a bygone era, as this vivid and expert biography shows.

Carrington

An Honourable Man

Lauren Bastide

Jeanne Damas

In Paris is a window on the world's most stylish city by two quintessentially Parisian women: Jeanne Damas, the it-girl, model, and actress, and Lauren Bastide, former editor-in-chief of French Elle. Dispelling the myth that there is only one type of Parisian woman, In Paris is made up of profiles of twenty different Parisiennes aged from fourteen to seventy, living in tiny studios or grand apartments, giving us a rare glimpse into their world: their homes, their careers, their style, and, most importantly, what being Parisian means to them. 
 
The portraits are illustrated with gorgeous full-colour photographs in Jeanne Damas' inimitable style, as well as lists of secret Parisian hideaways and style tips: from the five different types of red wine to order depending on the occasion, and the bars to drink them in, to the best red lipsticks, and places to be kissed.

In Paris

20 Women on Life in the City of Light

Mark Forsyth

For something that happens every year of our lives, we really don't know much about Christmas. 
 
We don't know that the date we celebrate was chosen by a madman, or that Christmas was first celebrated on 28 March in 243 AD - and only moved to 25 December in 354 AD. We're oblivious to the fact that the advent calendar was actually invented by a Munich housewife to stop her children pestering her for a Christmas countdown. We're unaware of the recipe that inspired the Twelve Days of Christmas. And we would never have guessed that the invention of crackers was merely a way of popularizing sweet wrappers. 
 
Luckily, like a gift from Santa himself, Mark Forsyth is here to unwrap this fundamentally funny gallimaufry of traditions and oddities, making it all finally make sense - in his wonderfully entertaining wordy way.

A Christmas Cornucopia

The Hidden Stories Behind Our Yuletide Traditions

Simon Schama

Churchill and his painter locked in a struggle of stares and glares; Gainsborough watching his daughters run after a butterfly; a naked John Lennon five hours before his death. 
 
Simon Schama has written a tour de force about British portraits over the centuries in which the image-maker, the subject and everyone else looking on are brought unforgettably to life. Mesmerising in its extraordinary storytelling, and beautifully illustrated, The Face of Britain will change the way we see our past - and ourselves.

The Face of Britain

The Stories Behind the Nation’s Portraits

The Nation through Its Portraits

Kilian Jornet Burgada

Kilian Jornet has conquered some of the toughest physical tests on the planet. He has run up and down Mt. Kilimanjaro faster than any other human being, and struck down world records in every challenge that has been proposed - all before the age of 25. Dominating ultra marathons and races at altitude, he has redefined what is possible in running, astonishing competitors with his near-superhuman fitness and ability. 
 
Inviting readers into a fascinating world rich with the beauty of rugged trails and mountain vistas, this inspiring, insightful and deeply personal book presents one simple choice: Run. Or die.

Run or Die

The Inspirational Memoir of the World's Greatest Ultra-Runner

Will Hermes

Crime was everywhere, the government was broke and the city's infrastructure was collapsing, but between 1974 and 1978 virtually all forms of music were being recreated in New York City: disco and salsa, the loft jazz scene and the Minimalist classical composers, hip hop and punk. 
 
Bruce Springsteen and Patti Smith arrived from New Jersey; Grandmaster Flash transformed the turntable into a musical instrument; Steve Reich and Philip Glass shared an apartment as they experimented with composition; the New York Dolls and Talking Heads blew away the grungy clubs; Weather Report and Herbie Hancock created jazz-rock; and Bob Dylan returned with Blood on the Tracks.

Love Goes to Buildings on Fire

Five Years in New York that Changed Music Forever

James Reed

Paul G. Stoltz PhD

What's the real secret of successful job hunters? 
 
In these unstable times, everyone wants to stand out from the crowd and secure a rewarding job with long-term potential. But what does it actually take to get the job you want? Ninety-seven percent of employers argue that it goes beyond having the right skills - it's all about the right mindset. 
 
James Reed, chairman of recruitment giant Reed, knows what employers really want from the people they hire and promote. With bestselling author Paul Stoltz, he has now identified exactly what makes you more likely to succeed when you're job hunting. 
 
In this book, Reed and Stoltz explain the '3G Mindset' - the way to develop the traits that will set you apart from the herd. Their powerful tools will help you assess your own mindset, and show employers your true value.

Put Your Mindset to Work

The One Asset You Really Need to Win and Keep the Job You Love

Jonathan L. S. Byrnes

Companies around the world turn to MIT's Jonathan Byrnes for one reason: he can figure out where the profit is. He shows them which customers and businesses are cash cows, and which efforts are just a drain on resources. Most astonishingly, in each case he finds that roughly 40% of his client's businesses are unprofitable. 
 
We are transitioning from an era of mass markets to the Age of Precision Markets. Before, companies sought to distribute their products as widely as possible using arm's-length customer relationships. Broad metrics like aggregate revenues and costs were adequate. But today companies form different relationships with different sets of customers. Successful businesses create competitive advantages and sustained profitability by developing innovative relationships and new types of value. This is a double-edged sword: if customers are matched with the right relationships, sales and profits soar...but if they are matched poorly, profitability plunges. 
 
Islands of Profit in a Sea of Red Ink tells you how to rethink your business for maximum profit - what to do, what difficulties you'll encounter, and how to overcome them. This book gives you the roadmap and tools you'll need to be a highly effective manager in a new era of business.

Islands of Profit in a Sea of Red Ink

Why 40% of Your Business is Unprofitable, and How to Fix It

Bill Jensen

Josh Klein

It would be so much easier to do great work if not for pointless bureaucracies, outdated technologies, and deeply irrational rules. These things are killing us. Frustrating? Hell, yes. 
 
But take heart. Today's top performers are taking matters into their own hands: bypassing sacred structures, using forbidden tools, and ignoring silly corporate edicts. In other words, they are hacking work to increase their efficiency and job satisfaction. 
 
In this groundbreaking book, consultant Bill Jensen and hacker Josh Klein reveal how to work smarter instead of harder. Once you learn how to hack work, you'll accomplish more in less time. You'll cut through red tape and circumvent stupid procedures. 
 
Hacking Work is about making the system work for you, so you can take control of your work load, increase your productivity, and help your company succeed - in spite of itself. 
 
One of Harvard Business Review's Ten Breakthrough Ideas for 2010

Hacking Work

Breaking Stupid Rules for Smart Results

Jerry Schilling

On a lazy Sunday in 1954, twelve-year-old Jerry Schilling wandered into a Memphis touch football game, only to discover that his team was quarterbacked by a nineteen-year-old Elvis Presley, the local teenager whose first record, &quot;That&rsquo;s All Right,&quot; had just debuted on Memphis radio. The two became fast friends, even as Elvis turned into the world&rsquo;s biggest star. In 1964, Elvis invited Jerry to work for him as part of his &quot;Memphis Mafia,&quot; and Jerry soon found himself living with Elvis full-time in a Bel Air mansion and, later, in his own room at Graceland. Over the next thirteen years Jerry would work for Elvis in various capacities &mdash; from bodyguard to photo double to co-executive producer on a karate film. But more than anything else he was Elvis&rsquo;s close friend and confidant: Elvis trusted Jerry with protecting his life when he received death threats, he asked Jerry to drive him and Priscilla to the hospital the day Lisa Marie was born and to accompany him during the famous &quot;lost weekend&quot; when he traveled to meet President Nixon at the White House. 
 
Me and a Guy Named Elvis looks at Presley from a friend&rsquo;s perspective, offering readers the man rather than the icon &mdash; including insights into the creative frustrations that lead to Elvis&rsquo;s abuse of prescription medicine and his tragic death. Jerry offers never-before-told stories about life inside Elvis&rsquo;s inner circle and an emotional recounting of the great times, hard times, and unique times he and Elvis shared. These vivid memories will be priceless to Elvis&rsquo;s millions of fans, and the compelling story will fascinate an even wider audience.

Me and a Guy Named Elvis

My Lifelong Friendship with Elvis Presley

Elna Baker

Growing up in a family shaped by conventional ideas of femininity, Elna Baker turned to food for self-expression. But at the age of 22, unemployed and with few romantic prospects, she faced the reality of her situation and it hit her hard. 
 
In one year, Elna Baker lost over 8 stone. 
 
Suddenly, strangers on the street who had once shouted insults were smiling spontaneously. Men who would never have given her a second glance were falling at her feet. Elna's new life was a fairytale, but adoration came at a price. She was reliant on appetite suppressants and weight loss shakes to keep her dream body alive. If old Elna became unlovable, new Elna would do everything she could to denounce her former self. 
 
Ten years later, on the eve of her dream wedding, a spell lifts. In choosing the version of herself that the world around her idolised, Elna had left her true self behind. Now, she would have to burn her dream life to the ground and rebuild it. 
 
Pretty for a Day is a vulnerable, witty and eye-opening story of the frivolity of beauty and the heartbreaking reality of extreme weight loss. This is the story of millions of women and, indeed, many men who are overwhelmed by impossible standards imposed through advertising, movies, celebrity culture, social media, and even our own friends and family. 
 
With the widespread availability of weight loss medication, like Ozempic and Mounjaro, we can choose to be thin for the first time in history. No one knows for sure what the medical or social consequences will be. 
 
Now, Elna Baker's searing memoir offers a roadmap to understand the devastating impact of weight loss. This is the story of how, after decades of undoing, Elna Baker finally got her body back.

Pretty for a Day

Simon Jenkins

A Short History of The English Village

Charlotte Fox Weber

Sacred Monster (noun): Someone who loomed very large in your life at a formative stage of young adulthood (15-30), changing your sense of self to the core. 
 
Most of us have a Sacred Monster. An ex-partner, an old boss, a tricky friend. That person we cannot seem to dislodge from our psychological landscape (or dreamscape). You may have pre-scripted emotional responses to certain situations because of the hold this Sacred Monster has over you, even if you’ve outwardly ‘moved on’. Years after that relationship ended, we deify our monsters, sometimes sabotaging new relationships, seeing others (and ourselves) through our monster’s lens. 
 
Via her clients’ moving recollections and stories, psychotherapist Charlotte Fox Weber opens a new conversation about how and why we cling to these figures who appalled and enthralled us. Beneath the surface of our biggest choices about how we live, she asks: how do our Sacred Monsters confound us? And what might it mean to be free of them? 
 
With this new framework for self-understanding, we can recognise and better name these lingering figures in our past who unconsciously shape our present. In doing so, we might understand ourselves better, more humanely, allowing ourselves to lead truly fulfilling, exciting lives.

Sacred Monsters

A Book About Love and Cruelty

Vaclav Smil

From the internationally bestselling author, a revealing look at the surprising numbers that uncover the hidden forces shaping our world 
 
'There is no author whose books I look forward to more' Bill Gates 
 
‘There is perhaps no other academic who paints pictures with numbers like Smil’ Guardian 
 
What do marriage, milk and the black market tell us about the state of humanity? Most people would say, not much at all. But the numbers reveal startling truths about who we are, how we live and where we’re headed. For centuries we’ve told ourselves stories about how the world works – yet the data often point to a very different reality. In Numbers Tell Stories, Vaclav Smil shows how statistics challenge conventional thinking and illuminate the hidden forces shaping our lives. 
 
Take marriage. Weren’t people in the past married off as children? In fact, in eighteenth-century France, the median age was 29 for men and 27 for women – not that different to today. Or longevity. Should we look to Japan to unlock the secrets of a long, healthy life? Perhaps – but only one in five Japanese men and women retains full independence in old age. Even the world’s healthiest nation still has far to go. And waste. It sounds absurd, but discarded electronics contain more gold per ton than gold ore itself – our rubbish is richer than our mines. 
 
Climate change is another challenge we know is huge – but the real shock is the scale of the economic effort required to act in time. Cutting greenhouse gas emissions on the recommended timescale would demand 15 to 20 per cent of annual GDP in wealthy countries – roughly equivalent to the resources mobilised by the Allies to win the Second World War. Numbers on that scale are not abstract: they would transform daily life. 
 
Behind every familiar story, Smil uncovers the statistics that can reframe the past, jolt our view of the present, and change how we think about the future.

Numbers Tell Stories

How Data Reveals the Surprising Truths About Our World

Ben Macintyre

The year is 1981. Tehran is in violent turmoil in the wake of the Iranian Revolution. The Soviets are planning to overthrow the Ayatollah’s fledgling Islamist regime. If they do so, one response from America – unknown to the public – would be to use nuclear weapons. Redwood is the story of how at the height of the Cold War, one mysterious double agent, whose intelligence reached the highest levels of British and American governments, cracked open the KGB, revealed the Kremlin’s secret plot and prevented Armageddon. 
 
‘Redwood’ was the MI6 codename for this unsung, hitherto unknown hero of the Cold War, a highly-trained six-foot-four Russian intelligence officer who chose to expose the KGB’s deepest secrets, compelled to swap sides by a shaming secret of his own. Facing exposure, with both the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and his own KGB colleagues closing in, he demanded that MI6 try to smuggle him out of Iran in a high-stakes escape plan. 
 
This is the gripping tale of one man’s courage, and its extraordinary unintended consequences that still shape our world today. It’s about a moving friendship between spies on opposite sides of the global conflict; about marriage, loyalty, betrayal and sexual dysfunction; and about how decisions made in secret can have huge, long-term ramifications. 
 
Drawing on never-before-seen material from archives in multiple countries, and interviews with the participants including officers from MI6 and MI5, the KGB and CIA, Redwood combines the shadowy world of the Spy and the Traitor with the action of SAS: Rogue Heroes. It lifts the lid on an unknown and highly significant Cold War victory, on the machinations of history's Great Game, and on how espionage really works. 
 
Without Redwood, our world would be very different – and might not exist at all.

Redwood

The Untold Story of the Cold War's Most Extraordinary Spy

Erin Goeres

The definitive character-led history of the most famous year in history, written in authoritative and dynamic prose by Dr Erin Goeres. 
 
On 5 January 1066, Edward the Confessor’s death plunged England into a succession crisis that would change the kingdom forever. Mere hours after Edward’s remains had been laid to rest, his brother-in-law Harold II seized power, inciting the wrath of two formidable challengers: King Haraldr Sigurðarson of Norway and Edward’s ambitious cousin, William, Duke of Normandy. 
 
In this startling new history, Dr Erin Goeres unveils the intense drama that unfolded, culminating in the tumultuous nineteen days between the battles of Stamford Bridge and Hastings in the autumn of 1066, and which led to the deaths of two monarchs and the end of Anglo-Scandinavian rule in England. 
 
Drawing together sources from the three regions at the heart of the fray – England, Normandy and Scandinavia – Goeres uncovers the complex histories, characters and motivations that drove these conflicts. We discover the stories of Tostig Godwinson, Harold II’s estranged brother; of William the Conqueror’s enigmatic wife, Matilda of Flanders, alleged lover of Harold of England; and we meet the regular people swept up in events beyond their control, such as an English farmer beheaded for his unwillingness to give up his fur-lined coat to a Norwegian invader. 
 
Nineteen Days in Autumn is a gripping tale of three nations entwined and the enthralling yet devastating consequences of their unravelling.

Nineteen Days in Autumn

A New History of 1066

William Ralston

Booed by crowds. 
 Sworn at by players. 
 Spat on from the stands. 
 Threatened. 
 Accused. 
 Targeted. 
 
 Welcome to the world of football refereeing. 
 
 We’ve all seen referees in football games, but very few of us really know what they go through both on the pitch and once the final whistle goes. 
 
 In this eye-opening and jaw-dropping new book, journalist William Ralston interviews referees at all levels of the game – from amateur Sunday leagues right up to the bright lights of the Premier League’s top flight, Champions League clashes and even World Cups – to get the full, unvarnished truth of this essential but impossible job. 
 
 With unrivalled access to UEFA, FIFA, and PGMO — the body responsible for Premier League referees — Ralston uncovers the intense selection process, the brutal physical and psychological training regimes they have to go through, and the pressures that intensify as officials rise through the game. 
He immersed himself in the lives of leading referees in Europe’s five major leagues — Bundesliga, Serie A, La Liga, Ligue 1, and of course the Premier League — on match days and at home, and even trained as a referee himself to experience the pressures first hand. 
Through a vast range of memorable games and a era-defining moments, he looks at the increasing influence of VAR, the escalating demands of the game, the way referees judge fouls, the art of getting a game right, and the consequences of getting it wrong. And he finally begins to understand why anyone would choose a job that – with its sacrifices, pressures, perils, and even death threats – seems truly insane. 
 
 Revealing a side of the game you have never seen before, The Impossible Job is the first book to fully explore the truly unbelievable world of refereeing. You’ll never watch a game the same way again.

The Impossible Job

The Truly Unbelievable World of Football Referees

Jon Ronson

** AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER NOW ** 
 
The million-copy bestselling author of The Psychopath Test, So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed and the award-winning BBC podcast Things Fell Apart moves to Penguin for his first book in eleven years, a darkly comic true crime mystery set within the masculinity crisis, The Castle. 
 
I honestly have no clue what is going on. 
This is very weird. 
We left. Was completely fucked. All good now. 
 
When Jon Ronson received a series of disquieting texts after his son Joel had been lured to a mysterious castle in the forests of New England under false pretences late one evening, it set Ronson Sr. off on an extraordinary adventure into a world of unmoored men on a desperate search for purpose, whatever the cost. 
 
Why did the wealthy scion of a gilded age tycoon entice Jon’s son to his castle on the pretext of a party, when the reality was something else entirely? Could Jon uncover what was really going on inside that strange castle? Why was a popular online lawncare influencer wrongly implicated in a bizarre plot to traumatize millions of unsuspecting children? And, more pressingly, why are two recently paroled murderers on their way to pay Jon an ominous visit? 
 
Against the backdrop of the sometimes moving, often disturbing masculinity crisis, Jon follows the trail of those men who are acting out, checked out or just plain out of time. Drawing on his trademark brand of humour, psychological insight and unrivalled prescience, and told in the riveting style of a true crime thriller, The Castle marks Jon Ronson’s triumphant return to the written page in his darkest and most wildly enjoyable journey yet – deep into the recesses of the Castle and the secret lives of men. 
 
PRAISE FOR JON RONSON: 
 
‘Simultaneously frightening and hilarious’ The Times 
 
‘Funny and compulsively readable’ Louis Theroux 
 
‘His scalpel-sharp journalistic mind comes wrapped in disarming, diffident warmth’ Miranda Sawyer, Guardian 
 
‘Ronson is one of our most important modern-day thinkers’ US News & World Report 
 
‘Funny and thought-provoking . . . original, inspired journalism’ Financial Times 
 
‘Gutsy and smart’ New York Times 
 
‘Simmering with humour, weirdness and pathos’ Sunday Times 
 
‘A diligent investigator and a wry, funny writer, Ronson manages to be at once academic and entertaining’ Boston Globe 
 
‘The belly laughs come thick and fast – my God, he is funny’ Observer

The Castle

Andrew Downie

Completed after almost eight years of research and over 250 interviews, Epic is the first biography of Pelé to explore every aspect of his professional and personal life. 
 Pelé was one of the most iconic sports figures of the 20th century and along with Muhammad Ali its most beloved. His achievements speak for themselves: aged just 17, he led Brazil to its first world title, scoring six times in three games; he remains the only player to have won the World Cup three times; his astonishing record of more than 1,200 goals has never been surpassed. 
 But numbers only tell half the story. 
 In Epic, veteran football correspondent Andrew Downie delves deep into Pelé's life. Through interviews with former teammates, coaches, business managers, close friends, and family members, Downie uncovers the man behind the myth. Drawing on new material and thousands of hours spent in archives across Europe and the Americas, Downie finds unpublished books, emails and memos by Pelé and his closest collaborators that offer an unprecedented insight into the real Edson Arantes do Nascimento. 
 He tells of the young boy who vowed to stay teetotal after getting drunk on wine, the consummate professional who ran up and down hotel corridors to maintain his sharpness on tour, and of the seemingly apolitical diplomat whose home was shot up during Brazil’s military dictatorship. Downie meticulously examines Pelé’s footballing achievements, relationships, and his business dealings against the backdrop of Brazil’s transformation from a South American backwater to the country of football. Pelé’s controversial stances on race, Brazil's dictatorship, and sex are all scrutinized and put into the proper context. The result is truly Epic.

Epic

The many lives of Pelé

Chris Ballard

It seems everywhere you look someone is dunking themselves in ice-cold water. Lizzo plunges to help with inflammation, Amy Poehler swears by her daily dunk, and Bradley Cooper even posed for a magazine shoot at his favourite dipping hole. 
 
In THE PLUNGE, intrepid journalist Chris Ballard immerses himself in this growing tribe of cold-water junkies of all ages, shapes and nationalities, meeting social circles and those trying to create a new Olympic sport. He travels to laboratories and swims in waters around the world, from Portsmouth to the Pacific, exploring evolutionary principles and ancient practices largely lost in the modern world. 
 
From cold plunge to open water swimming to ice swimming, he tests his limits in this extreme sport, eventually becoming a US national champion in the Ice Mile -- a mile-long swim in freezing water, a test of body and mind. 
 
Along the way, he explores the cutting-edge science of the benefits of cold water: how it helps with muscle recovery and soothes chronic pain, boosts feelings of alertness, contentment and energy, and can even help to treat depression and anxiety. 
 
THE PLUNGE is a rollicking, eye-opening adventure about the cure that’s freely available to all and as old as the planet itself: cold water.

The Plunge

Maverick Swimmers, An Unlikely Quest, and The Transformative Power of Cold Water

Jonathan Fennell

Between 1931 and 1949, a series of crises broke out that threatened collective security, world order and the internal cohesion of states across the globe. At the heart of these crises was a world war that shook the foundations of global power, a watershed moment in the history of the Twentieth Century. Collapse is the first volume of an authoritative trilogy that tells the story of the Second World War through this international lens, covering theatres of war in multiple continents and analysing worldwide trends.Combining military, political, social and economic history, Professor Jonathan Fennell explores the first part of this "long war", from 1931-1942, through exciting new sources that explore what it really meant to live through this violent time. Using an innovative approach which explores the personal alongside the political, the global alongside the local, he shows how a world that many considered civilised collapsed into barbarity.Through immersive storytelling and a cast of characters and communities, Collapse links the home and battle fronts and ties together the stories of great campaigns with the dramatic political and social changes of the Twentieth Century, and in doing so, transforms our understanding of this monumental conflict.

Collapse

A Global History of the Second World War, 1931-1941

A Private Thriller

A series of children's modern classic novels by renowned 20th century children's writers. All the titles in this series have the A Puffin Book logo, contemporary-style covers, and child-friendly endnotes.

A Puffin Book

A Ripley Novel

A Slice of the Moon

A Victorian Mystery

A Walk in...

A Women’s Murder Club Thriller

A chef Paul Delamare Mystery

Aberrations

Across the Universe

Actiphons

Adelia Aguilar

Adrian Mole

Adventures in Time

Aftermath

Against War

Age of X

Agent 21

Agent Z

Detective Aidan Waits is a troubled junior detective haunted by his past. Facing an uncertain future, and disconnected from his history, DC Waits and his partner, Detective Inspector Peter 'Sutty' Sutcliffe work on Manchester's streets to uncover the city's worst criminals among the grime of the underworld.

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